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I photographed a couple of birds and butterflies in Argentina and tried to identify them. I tried online species identification tools, looked in books, and just tried to find pictures on Google with similar animals. This worked for some of the pictures, but for others I couldn't find the correct species. So as a layman, what options do I have?

Here are the ones that I couldn't identify so far

1 (There seems to be a bird and a beetle in this picture. The bird could be a Thraupis Episcopus)

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2 (A hummingbird but which one?)

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3 (Seems to be the same hummingbird)

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4 (No idea)

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5 (No idea)

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6 (No idea)

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7 (No idea)

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8 (No idea)

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    $\begingroup$ What most people do to identify is, well, Google "Birds (or butterflies) of Argentina" and narrow down the categories by beak type, tail type, etc. I know you have a dove, a hummingbird (should be easy), what I believe is a vulture, and one of the most common of parrots. That should start you off. $\endgroup$
    – anongoodnurse
    Commented Feb 10, 2015 at 3:23
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    $\begingroup$ To 1: I am not quite sure if this is a beetle. It could be a piece of banana that was stuck to the tree. possibly to attract birds. Something black is sticking out of it close to the "center". And the bird also has this "don't touch my food"-look. $\endgroup$
    – skymningen
    Commented Feb 10, 2015 at 10:00
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    $\begingroup$ Each of these would probably be a good question by itself, but asking for 8 separate identifications is too broad for a single question. I think this should be broken apart into separate questions. $\endgroup$
    – p.s.w.g
    Commented Feb 13, 2015 at 17:07

2 Answers 2

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First, I think it is more useful to post separate questions, at least for each taxonomic group (birds, butterflies etc). To make a question a dumping ground for all sorts of species determination pictures is a bad idea.

That said, the butterflies seem to belong to the families Nymphalidae, (nr 5) and Papilionidae (Swallowtails) (nr 7), judged by overall apperance. I'm not directly familiar with South American butterflies, but two likely species are:

Doxocopa agathina (Nr 5), or related species in the Doxocopa genus. enter image description here (from wikipedia commons)

Papilio thoas (Nr 7)
This is the King Swallowtail, your specimen probably of the subspecies P. t. brasiliensis which is found in Argentina. Sometimes the name Heraclides thoas is used. Pictures of subspecies can be found here: Butterflycorner.net. Your speciemen have lost the tail appendages (could be due to wear-and-tear or bird attacks). A related similar species is Papilio astyalus, which is also found in Argentina (pictures), but it usually has a broader yellow band. enter image description here (from wikipedia commons)

The bird in nr. 6 looks like a Black vulture (Coragyps atratus).
enter image description here

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To answer your question as written, the best option I have for species ID is still to post to fora (such as this one), where experts (or interested amateurs like myself) can manually identify them. Computer identification, although much better nowadays, is still some way away from being able to recognise all species.

4 looks very much like a Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura, although its range seems to be limited to North America.

Going up its taxonomy I found the Eared Dove Zenaida auriculata which does live in Argentina.

enter image description here enter image description here

8 looks like a collection of macaws, with the Blue and yellow macaw and the Scarlet macaw being visible.

enter image description here enter image description here

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